“It’s Friday of the last week of semester one and I have now finished all classes – this was the 31st semester that I have completed in NCI. The last week of a semester always gives me mixed feelings in that as each day passes I have a last lecture/tutorial with each class in turn. Some I will see in class again in semester two, others not. They say that time flies if you are having fun …” (more)

“The National College of Ireland (NCI) is looking to secure Government funding to build a second campus in Dublin city centre. The college wants to double its spaces in computer and IT courses to address a skills shortage in the capital’s financial and tech sectors. NCI is seeking to purchase land near the IFSC and develop a multimillion 10,000 sq m campus to take on 1,500 new students in the short-term …” (more)

“A lecturer who claimed he was defamed in a letter sent by his college authorities to about 100 students has settled his High Court action. Keith Maycock, a computer science lecturer, sued the National College of Ireland (NCI), International Financial Services Centre, Dublin …” (more)

“For the first time in my 14 years at National College of Ireland, I will not be attending our annual Graduation Ceremony being held at the National Convention Centre today. I have an almost full schedule of classes during both the morning and afternoon conferrals, so this year I am working with next year’s graduates! …” (more)

“It is officially the end of Semester 1 today – I have just finished my last class (I have a re-scheduled class next week due to a postponement earlier in the semester). For students and faculty alike, it is a day that took 13 long weeks to arrive since we started last September …” (more)

“It’s 5 o’clock on Friday at the end of our first week back in Semester 1 and I have finished classes for the week. This year I am teaching Statistics (to three groups), Project Management, and a new module on the Fundamentals of Business Analysis …” (more)

“The cost of renting college campus accommodation in Ireland is to rise significantly from this September. University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University – who all provide on-campus accommodation – have confirmed plans for rent increases for the upcoming academic year …” (more)

“Last week I wrote a guest blog post for the National College of Ireland Blog about a day in the life of a Lecturer, which was published yesterday. I chose the last Wednesday of Semester II to log my activities for the day – this was my longest and busiest day of the week …” (more)

“Third level students are being advised to look at hostels for accommodation in Dublin City because of the accommodation shortage. Trinity College has pointed students at the hostels as it has nothing left to offer them on campus …” (more)

“Around 100 members of staff are to undertake industrial action at the National College of Ireland due to what SIPTU describes as a ‘unilateral breach by the college management of an agreement reached with union members two years ago’ …” (more)

“Today I attended a short Conference at NCI on teaching and learning in the FE sector in Ireland. It is not a sector that I am very familiar with, so I was keen to learn more about the sector and meet some of the teachers and practitioners that are the educators in this space …” (more)

“Today the Higher Education Authority has published Completing the Landscape Process for Irish Higher Education. Proof that things move slowly in this field is that after almost a full year since the HEA first started this process that the new document does ‘not represent, at this point, the considered conclusions of the HEA’. There’s a lot more to come …” (more)

“There is no doubt that in Ireland’s desperate economic situation that Education budgets are under threat. The Government is asking how to get more for less. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) last year asked for submissions from all third level colleges to express their views as to how the third-level system should be reformed …” (more)

“An internal investigation is being carried out at a third-level Dublin college after students swallowed a live goldfish, raw chicken necks, lamb’s hearts, cat and dog food and an array of chillies as part of an iron stomach competition …” (more)

“The National College of Ireland ad running on television turns my stomach. It epitomises the selfishness, self-centredness and greed at the heart of modern Ireland. It involves students all listing what they as individuals want for themselves, with no sense of concern for what they can give, or what the community needs …” (discussion thread)

“More than 400 Omani students will undertake third-level degrees at Irish colleges each year for the next five years, according to Oman’s honorary consul in Ireland, Dettia O’Reilly. The first group of students from the Middle Eastern country will start their studies in September and October at six Irish colleges in a move that is expected to be worth €4 million each year to the colleges …” (more)

UCD’s student to staff ratio hits 23:1(19 February) - "Figures released in the latest Higher Education Authority (HEA) report has highlighted a national trend that the ratio of students to staff in Irish...